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Coffee Break Story

Bounty: Neon Zelena

By XP Author

The crowd of suits was so clustered together, it was oppressive. So many people packed so close together, all wearing the same fucking black business suit and tie. All going to or from the cloud piercing towers they worked or lived in, like ants, even in the dead of night. She hated it. She hated everything about this city's 'upscale' life. It was why Zelena stuck to the shadows, living in the dark corners where the 'decent' people pretended did not exist. The rabbit could not imagine living anywhere else, or doing anything else but running.

Unfortunately, a runner does not always get to choose their jobs. Even in the shadows, you needed creds to eat. So she took this job. It was not that it was particularly dangerous, certainly not compared to other runs. It was an easy gig, actually. She was to wait in the alley for someone to deliver her some package, then deliver that package across town to someone else. The fact that they needed to contact a runner to do it meant it was definitely illegal. Probably some kind of corporate espionage, one competitor stealing a new tech from another, or someone wanting to make a little extra on the side selling things on the black market. She really did not care.

Zelena pulled back the sleeve of her coat, looking at her chrono. Her contact was late. These corporate underling types got real jittery about getting their own hands dirty. She imagined some up-tight suit pacing about or fidgeting about on the street. Probably acting more suspicious than she was just being here. She would give him another fifteen minutes, then she was out. She pulled out a cigarette and put it to her lips. With a snap of her metallic fingers, a spark lit the end. She had gotten mocked by many a runner for having a lighter installed into her cyberarm like that... until they wanted a smoke and asked for a lighter.

She leaned back against the building and looked out at the street. It was dark overhead, not that there was much sky to be seen. Massive buildings dominated the view, all steel and glass, and very sterile and boring outside of some special architecture. Of course, the aesthetics was lost on ground level. Light poles kept the street illuminated almost better than the sun would during the day. She hated it. She was used to the seedy part of town, with older buildings and flashy, neon signs advertising everything from food vendors, to sex shops, to questionably legal medical services.

She took one last drag from the cig and tossed the butt away. She was calling this here. Something felt off. Ten years as a runner, she learned to trust her instincts. She pushed off from the wall and started walking down to the back of the alley and the backstreets. Her instincts suddenly screamed at her to run, and she did. Not a moment too soon, as the pavement behind her exploded into debris and dust, ripped open by a heavy bullet fired at high velocity.

She swore and bolted down the dark back streets, weaving between buildings aimlessly in hopes of breaking line of sight to whoever took that shot. "Fucking setup? Guess I pissed someone off..." She did not bother going through the list of possible candidates. It was just too long, from every major megacorp to any number of petty crime lords, or possibly just some other runner she pissed off. Another bullet whizzed past her head, so close it left her ear ringing. A chunk of wall burst into dust in front of her. Whoever it was, they must have had some pretty pricey tech. Only a smart bullet could have followed her erratic path. Those did not come cheap, nor did the guns that could use them.

She ripped back the sleeve of her coat to reveal her cyberarm. She grit her teeth as she tapped something on the side, and a moment later she felt the unpleasant feeling of electricity surging over her body. A small EM pulse, usually used to knock out electronic locks, it had the added effect of altering one's own electronic signature. Enough that any smart lock would be lost and have to be reacquired. Whoever was following would have to get down and dirty to find her now.

She took a moment to look around and get her barrings. Figuring generally where she was, she bolted off toward the direction of the river that ran through the middle of the city. She figured she could duck under one of the bridges and get lost in the drainage tunnels. No more bullets were flying past her, so she probably lost whoever it was trying to off her, but she was not going to go taking any chances. Being overconfident was the leading cause of death for runners.

The river was just coming into sight when her left shoulder exploded in pain. Something hit her with enough force to send her tumbling over herself. She crashed to the ground and rolled, skidding to a halt at the corner of a brick building. She grunted as she pushed herself up, looking at the would. It was not severe or life threatening, but there was quite a lot of blood soaking into her clothing. They hit the shoulder that was flesh, naturally.

Zelena was just about to push herself up to keep running when something heavy struck her chest, knocking her to the ground again. She looked up to see a tall equine standing over her. The brown fur of his face was broken up by the thin lines of surgical scars, where cyber was installed. He was built like a brick shit house, his shoulders far wider than they should be, his frame very squared and solid, even under his bulky trench. Definitely heavily cybered up. It looked too obvious to be a corporate runner. Of course, she was most concerned about the heavy pistol he was pointing at her.

When he spoke, his voice was so gravely, it was like rocks grinding together. "Sorry, this isn't personal. But you got a bounty on your head. I'm claiming it."

She scoffed. "Don't supposed it's a wanted alive, is it?"

"No." There was no humor in his voice.

She grunted, shifting to a sitting position, leaning her back against the wall behind her. "Don't supposed you'll tell me who-" She let out a scream of pain as he shot her in the gut twice.

"No." He had seen right through her attempt at keeping him talking long enough for her to draw her own gun. She had not even managed to reach down to grab it yet. He holstered his gun while she writhed on the ground, blood pouring from the wounds in her belly. "The contract was quite explicit in what it wanted." He knelt down beside her and grabbed her ears, lifting her head up to look at him. She winced sa the metal fingers grasped her, another clamping on her jaw. "They just want your head."

Zelena's eyes went wide. She reached up to try and pull his hands away, but she screamed again as a metal knee slammed against her chest, pinning her to the ground. The sound of the cybers straining filled her ears, then the sound of her own neck straining replaced it. He started to pull her head away, forcing her to scream even louder. Her spine popped several times, making her wish she had spent creds reinforcing it. Her screams started to become strained and off pitch as he continued to pull, all the while staring down at her with cold, uncaring eyes.

The sound of flesh tearing and bones cracking was the last thing she heard. Once her pelt started to tear, the gash opened around the rest of her neck. Her muscles did not last much longer than that, snapping under the pressure. Her legs flailed and kicked against the ground as her screams became gurgles. With one final crunch, her spine snapped, the rest of the connective tissue holding her head in place snapping along with it and her head came fully free of her shoulders.

Blood sprayed out from the jagged remains of her neck, splashing onto the concrete in great spurts, her heart pumping hard within her chest ironically killing the body faster. The horse stood up and watched her body's final moments. Her arms grasped at nothing in front of her, her legs kicking at the ground again and again. Her hips bucked constantly, as if she was still trying to break his hold on her. Her breasts bounced inside of her tight shirt. A dark mark appeared in her pants as she pissed herself in death.

The show went on for almost a minute, her body going through twitches and spasms as it used up the last of whatever energy it had. Soon, it grew still. Even the spurting blood was reduced to a slow trickle once the heart finally gave out. He looked at her head. The expression was slack, jaw hanging open. Fear and pain was still within her eyes, but everything else was just the dull expression of death. He pulled out a small canvass bag from inside of his coat and stuffed her head inside of it. It was lined so that the blood would not seep through.

Turning away, he slung the bag over his shoulder and walked back into the shadows. He would deliver her head to the contractor, a local crime lord she had screwed over recently. Her body he left in the back alley. It would either be eaten by the rats or someone would find it. If she was lucky, it would be the cops. If she was unlucky, it would be the vagrants, who would more than likely use whatever holes she had before eating her themselves. Either way, it was not his concern. Such was the risk of running the shadows.

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